Sat 11am, Highland Hospital: No Staff Cuts!

SAVE OUR COUNTY HOSPITAL!


They're opening the new building

But they're cutting the staff!

Just say No to :

Cuts

co-pays

layoffs

cambio

Demonstrate at the opening of the new building at Highland Hospital

Saturday June 19 th at 11 am

In front of the new building on E.31st street, cross street 14th avenue in Oakland

sponsored by PUSH (People United to Save Health Care); for info or to get
involved, call (510)587-3272


>>
>> Background:
>>
>> Measure A was supposed to be ³New Money²
>> In March 71 percent of Alameda County voters enacted an additional 1/2 cent
>> sales tax to support
>> the county medical center. This is ³new money,² and is not to be used to
>> replace current funding.
>>
>> Layoffs Create Phony Surplus
>> Now, less than four months after the election, Cambio Health Solutions, the
>> high-priced
>> Tennessee-based consultants who are now managing the medical center, have
>> ordered the layoff
>> of over 500 workers, equivalent to 350 full time positions, although the
>> opening of the new
>> building¹s clinics and critical care department should have added 140
>> positions. The layoffs will
>> create a $14 million dollar surplus which will be used to ³pay back² $10
>> million of the County¹s
>> ³loan² in one year. By creating a ³surplus,² they hope to get around the
>> restrictions Measure A
>> imposed on using this new money as replacement funds.
>>
>> They¹re Requiring Deposits from Uninsured Patients
>> The Hospital Authority has decided to require that uninsured patients deposit
>> up to $100 before
>> they are seen at the hospital or clinics, unless it is an immediate
>> life-threatening emergency. This
>> puts people¹s lives and health in jeopardy, and causes unnecessary pain and
>> suffering. It also risks
>> the community¹s health, if people delay treatment for infectious diseases. It
>> wastes health care
>> dollars because the eventual emergency or hospital treatment may cost 10
>> times or more what a
>> clinic visit would have cost. When the medical center closed the Central
>> Health Center and the
>> Fairmont Clinics last year, emergency room visits increased up to 50 percent.
>>
>> It¹s Time to Hold the Board of Supervisors Accountable
>> When we passed Measure A, we gave a clear message to the Board of
>> Supervisors, that we want
>> quality, appropriate public health care in Alameda County. It is time that
>> the Board of Supervisors
>> stopped wasting our money on high-priced consultants who promise that they,
>> unlike the previous
>> million dollar consultants, have the way to make money off caring for poor
>> people.
>>
>> We Want Quality Public Health Care
>> Measure A gave us a chance for a new start. Now the Board of Supervisors and
>> the Hospital
>> Authority must work with the workers and the community to provide the health
>> care the people
>> of our County want and deserve.
>>
>>
>>
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